


Come On, Fish Bait

by TheSwingbyJeanHonoreFragonard



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Comedy, Fantasy, Friendship, Gen, Magical Realism, Mermaids, OT5, Summer Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:21:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22537699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSwingbyJeanHonoreFragonard/pseuds/TheSwingbyJeanHonoreFragonard
Summary: Throw 'em on a hook.
Comments: 15
Kudos: 39





	Come On, Fish Bait

It all started with a rumor. 

These kinds of things have to start that way, you know. A story about a hidden treasure off the coast that someone heard from someone else who was told by someone’s one-eyed uncle. Or a tale about a once-lost underwater civilization passed on from generation to generation. Or a harrowing story about a ghost ship. A surprisingly high number of ghost ships in the area. Must be something in the water.

Rumors are the start of things. Just some word of mouth, a little bit of imagination and… greed. The primal human desire for riches and granted wishes will drive anyone to do crazy things even if there isn’t much solid proof of those riches or granted wishes. 

Rumors are the start of history or the start of war. 

In this particular case, a rumor is the start of a journey.

The journey of five friends who needed to (for the betterment of all mankind, dammit) sail out into the middle of the ocean on the hunt for a--

“You want us to go look for  _ what _ now?” Kai asked. His mouth had been full of potato chips four seconds earlier but now the majority of them had flown out of his mouth to decorate the boardwalk. Nearly instantly, a trio of seagulls dove for the half-eaten chips, squawking.

“A merm-” Soobin started.

“Don’t say it again,” Kai interrupted. It was taking him a bit to process Soobin’s suggestion. “You want us to go out there-” He pointed to the ‘out there’ in question. “-in my dad’s boat?”

“Ye-”

“In my  _ dad’s _ boat?” repeated Kai, voice going up an octave with shock.

“Yea-” 

Kai interrupted again. “In  _ my _ dad’s boat?” He pointed at himself, eyes wide. 

“You said that already,” Taehyun pointed out calmly before taking a bite out of his cotton candy.

Kai ignored him. “Let me get this straight. For the quote-unquote  _ betterment of all mankind _ , you want us to steal my dad’s boat to go look for a… a… a  _ mermaid _ out in the middle of the ocean?” 

“Where else would they be?” said Taehyun.

Once again, Kai ignored him. “Soobin, are you insane?”

Soobin inhaled as if to speak.

“Don’t answer that!” Kai cut him off. 

Taehyun snickered.

Honestly, it wasn’t even the mermaid bit that was sending him. It was the whole ‘taking his dad’s boat’ situation that was throwing him for a loop. “We can’t,” Kai concluded. “We shouldn’t.”

They were all leaning on the rickety metal railing of the boardwalk, standing shoulder to shoulder with their elbows propped up on the handrail. The wind was strong today, blowing their hair and loose shirts every which way. On the other side of the railing, a strip of pure white sand stretched out before them and, beyond it, the ocean sat deep and vast and blue. It stretched from horizon to horizon and sparkled beneath the mid-summer sun. It was a cloudless and humid July day. The kind of summer day singers wrote top-ten-radio reggae hits about. The beach was crowded and full of movement and sound. Multi-colored sun umbrellas, towels, lounge chairs and coolers were everywhere. Tourists and locals alike mingled on the sand. 

The five of them were no different. Tourists and locals. Five extremely different boys who had been and probably only would be friends for the remaining length of summer vacation.

That was another thing about days like this. They came to an end.

“What even made you come up with this silly idea?” asked Kai.

Soobin grinned and reached into the pocket of his shorts for his phone. “Over the weekend, some fishermen were out and got a mermaid caught in one of their nets and barely managed to cut the ropes loose before the thing capsized them. Everyone in the marina has been talking about it. Haven’t you heard? Look, here’s a picture.” 

He handed his phone over and Kai examined the poorly-lit photograph only to be unimpressed. “This is a blurry blob.” He aimed the screen towards Taehyun’s face. “This is a blurry blob!”

Taehyun bit off more of his fluffy blue cotton candy and squinted at the screen. “I don’t know, man. That’s clearly a face. You can kind of see a nose right over there and maybe some eyebrows. Is that the mouth?”

“You can’t  _ possibly _ be onboard with this.” Kai shook his head. “That’s not a mermaid. That’s an out of focus finger. You can see the ring!” 

“Umm, that’s the ship railing,” clarified Soobin, raising his hand like he was being called on in class.

Kai reached past Taehyun to show the photograph to Beomgyu, who wasn’t even paying attention. The boy had pulled his expensive sunglasses down his nose to waggle his eyebrows and wink at a girl rollerblading past them on the boardwalk. Kai hit him on the side of the head with Soobin’s phone.

“Ow!” Beomgyu spun towards him, wincing. “She was just about to make eye contact with me. I almost had her hooked, dammit.” 

Kai pressed the phone close to Beomgyu’s face. “Please tell me Soobin’s not going to convince us to go mermaid hunting.” 

Beomgyu didn’t even look at the phone. He was already turning back towards the crowd on the boardwalk, looking for someone else to flirt with. “I wouldn’t mind a day out on the boat.” 

“See?” Soobin said excitedly. “Just get the boat like usual and let’s all go.”

This was too much for Kai to handle. Their ‘days out on the boat’ on average were nothing more complicated than a lap or two around the marina and that was  _ only _ if he knew his dad was home so that he could radio for assistance with the controls. “Like usual? We never go further than the mouth of the inlet. You’re talking about the middle of the ocean. There’s a big difference. I’ve never gone out there.”

Soobin’s happy expression didn’t change. Actually, his smile widened. He squeezed Kai’s shoulder good-naturedly. “You’re the only one making a fuss, Kai.” 

“I’m the only one thinking this through.” Kai needed to get at least one of the boys on his side. There was always one whose support he could count on. He reached past Soobin to hold the phone up towards Yeonjun. “Is this a blurry out-of-focus mermaid or a blurry out-of-focus finger?”

Yeonjun, wordlessly sipping his soda this whole time, peered at the phone screen for a moment. Then he leaned back, scrunched up his face and shrugged his shoulders up to his ears, waving one of his hands like  _ Kinda sorta both _ ? To his credit, Yeonjun usually only spoke in exaggerated facial expressions and wild gestures but that never stopped the other boys from perfectly understanding him. 

“That’s four for and one against,” Soobin declared, snatching his phone out of Kai’s hand. “We live in a democracy, so it looks like we’re going on a trip.”

“In our favorite stolen ship,” Taehyun sang along to the tune of the Little Einsteins theme song, his tongue bright blue from the cotton candy.

“Not stolen.  _ Borrowed _ .” Beomgyu clarified. “Important distinction.” He slid his sunglasses back up his nose. 

“I don’t believe this,” Kai threw up a hand in surrender before stuffing his mouth with a fresh handful of potato chips. He chomped on them angrily and stared out at the ocean like all of this was the fault of the water. “My dad’s gonna flip.”

“He should be used to it by now,” stated Beomgyu. Apparently, he’d given up on flirting and was paying the guys his full attention. “If he was really so against you taking the boat out, don’t you think he’d stop putting the keys on the hook by your back door?”

Kai refused to acknowledge that he actually had a point.

“That settles it,” said Taehyun. “We should hit up the convenience store to stock up on snacks and then go find us a mermaid.”

Beomgyu jumped up and let out an excited holler that startled a woman passing by. Yeonjun clenched his fist and nodded, startling no one but practically expressing the same level of enthusiasm.

“Is it too late to suggest we go see a movie?” Kai had to at least  _ try _ .

“Definitely,” Taehyun said. 

Kai sweetened the pot. “Come on, they’re doing that special shark movie festival thing.”

Taehyun didn’t go for it. “Should have spoke up like ten minutes ago.”

“Besides,” Soobin piped up, slinging his backpack off of his shoulders and holding it above his head like it was Simba. “I already bought us matching uniforms!”

🚤🚤🚤

The matching uniforms in question were short-sleeved navy blue button-down shirts decorated with enamel pins and plastic medals to look like something guys in the Navy would wear. They were a little  _ much _ but Soobin insisted. It was his entire paycheck, he declared. The shirts also came paired with rather short shorts. Like... really short. 

Soobin could have bought pants for them all but was more than ready to show off the beefy thighs he’d been working on at the gym. 

Beomgyu was just ready to get going and honestly would have worn a speedo. 

Taehyun thought the shorts made him look taller which was always a plus when you were the shortest in the group. 

Yeonjun didn’t have a particular opinion either way.

Kai had to be  _ strongly persuaded _ to don the rather form-fitting apparel and only gave in after being bribed with frozen yogurt (tart raspberry with huge graham cracker bits, a herd of gummy bears and a light drizzle of chocolate chips) and a strict no camera policy (which Soobin immediately violated by filming Kai untying the boat from the marina dock and posting it on Instagram with several peach emojis as the caption.)

“Should we start on the ramen or the snack cakes?” Kai needed to know as he looked through the plastic bags containing an array of snacks Taehyun had bought at the convenience store earlier.

“We haven’t even left yet,” Beomgyu pointed out, only just now stepping up onto the deck of the fishing boat painted bright yellow and blue.

It was half past three in the afternoon and the sun was already starting to beat down hard on them. Soobin hadn’t even  _ thought _ of buying matching hats! 

Next time. Next time.

“Didn’t you  _ just _ stuff your face with that big tub of fro-yo?” Soobin asked. “We had to sit and wait for you. The girl at the counter thought it was for all of us. She gave you five spoons.”

“But that wasn’t food-food. It was just food.” Shamelessly, Kai’s eyes settled on the plastic ramen bowls. Shrimp flavored. Appropriate.

Yeonjun pouted and rubbed his stomach with both of his hands like  _ I could eat _ .

Beomgyu groaned. “Now I’m hungry, too.”

With the matter settled, Yeonjun and Beomgyu went below deck to boil the water while Kai and Soobin climbed to the wheelhouse to crank up the engine. Still nervous about doing all of this, Kai carefully, slowly piloted his dad’s fishing boat away from the docks. It was no luxury yacht by any stretch of the imagination but a boat was a boat. 

“Summer’s almost over, you know,” Soobin sighed as he sank down into the captain’s seat on the bridge. Even when he was just lounging back, his tall frame made him seem imposing. 

“Don’t remind me,” Kai grunted. 

August wasn’t even a week away now. 

August meant going back to school. 

August meant saying goodbye to everyone. For good.

They were only summer vacation friends, after all. 

Soobin continued. “It’s not something we can ignore. Next week, things are going to change.”

“I don’t want things to change,” Kai griped. “They were just starting to get alright. I was just starting to have fun.” His hands tightly gripped the spokes of the sheep’s steering wheel and with precise, heavily-practiced movements, he guided the boat around row after row of expensive yachts, modest houseboats and rickety crabbing vessels. 

“Summer can’t last forever,” said Soobin.

Beach city life wasn’t always as glamorous as summer vacationers thought. The boardwalk was always covered in litter by day’s end. The stink of fish seemed to permanently hang in the air down by the pier. Thunderstorms rolled in off the sea only to give way to sunny, bright skies thirty minutes later. On top of that, once all the tourists left, there actually weren’t too many locals remaining and things could get terribly quiet and lonely and  _ cold _ come September. 

Soobin had lived here all of his life and had gotten used to the cyclical nature of people coming and going for summer. This was only Kai’s second summer here and it already felt like he was about to lose everything. 

“I hope you’re not too mad at me,” said Soobin with a seriousness that made Kai uncomfortable. “I mean, I know you don’t really like getting roped into these kinds of things but Beomgyu goes back home tomorrow so I wanted us all to do one more big thing together before he left.”

“It’s not just him leaving,” said Kai. “It’s Yeonjun, Taehyun and… and you, too.” He hated thinking about it. “I’m going to be here by myself.”

Soobin nodded slowly, like he’d forgotten that detail. “So that’s what this is about.” In the spring, Soobin had wrapped up his two-year stint at the community college and was prepped to leave town to finish his bachelor’s at a distant university. What Kai was the most upset about was that Soobin had known about his acceptance since  _ May _ but hadn’t told Kai until last week. Right here at the end when it almost didn’t matter. “School could be life-changing for me. I can’t stay here in this small town forever,” Soobin eventually said. “Neither should you.”

Kai grunted. “Whatever.”

They had left the zig zag of docks and stone breakwaters behind them and were now chugging past the lighthouse and out to the mouth of the inlet. Behind them, the towering ironwork of the amusement park at the end of the boardwalk rose above them. Delightful shouts and carnival music echoed down to them but the happiness of that place didn’t quite seem to reach the boys. 

Only a couple of other boats were out here in this stretch of water. Tourists sunbathing on the decks of rented sailboats or the last stragglers of fishermen returning from an early morning at work. 

Kai could feel the current tugging at the boat from underneath. He put on some speed and steered the boat around a wide, gentle bend and then they were out of the inlet and in open, deep, wild ocean. 

In all honesty, it was Kai’s first time taking the boat this far out without his father hovering over his shoulder and the sudden responsibility of keeping them all safe fell down on him like bricks.

After a silence that had long since stretched awkwardly thin, Kai finally spoke up. “It’s okay, I guess. All of you leaving… It would have happened eventually. I’m surprised you all still hang out with me even though I’m such a… what did Taehyun call me the other day? A wet rag?”

“Don’t let him get to you. He’s from a well-off family and can’t stand to hear somebody say no to his ideas.” 

“But it’s true, isn’t it? I’m always the one trying to stop you from having fun.”

“One of us probably would have wound up seriously injured if not for you keeping us in line.”

Kai shook his head. That’s not really what he wanted to do as a friend. He didn’t want to be ‘the mean one.’ “You’ll all forget about this summer soon anyways.”

That was another thing about summer days. They let you be the best of friends with people who wouldn’t give you the time of day in the spring or in the autumn. Taehyun was the son of an idol and was set to make his own idol debut in October. Beomgyu, little brother of a popular fashion designer with nearly a million Instagram followers of his own, was only in their tiny little resort town ‘summering.’ 

None of the boys knew who Yeonjun’s family was. 

He didn’t like to talk about it.

Under normal circumstances, a part-time lifeguard and the son of a fisherman couldn’t be friends with such a group but summer on the beach changed all that. A summer on the beach was like its own alternate universe in which love and friendships and fun and rivalries and secrets could exist on a different timeline from one’s regular life. Perhaps that’s what kept people coming back year after year. They could claim a different life each time.  _ Live _ a different life.

Kai supposed that’s what he was doing too. A shy, squeaky-voiced introvert with no school friends eating cotton candy and instant ramen with idol trainees and Instagram influencers. He picked up his trail of thought. “I just feel like I’m the odd one out sometimes. I’m always the one disagreeing. I’m always the one saying no.” 

Soobin had found one of the fishing magazines Kai’s dad kept stashed in a drawer. He flipped through it without actually reading any of it, only looking at the pictures. “They don’t know you like I do.” 

“But do you know me?” Kai asked, keeping his eyes out the large, wide windows of the bridge. “We’ve only been friends since April.”

“I know you well enough to know that you’re a good friend.”

“I’m a bad friend. You’re all bad friends.”

“How about this. We’re all assholes.”

“Except Yeonjun,” Kai corrected.

Soobin agreed. “Except Yeonjun.” 

🚤🚤🚤

When the ramen was ready, Beomgyu called everyone to the stern deck.

Kai cut the engines and followed Soobin out of the wheelhouse, their earlier conversation officially on the back burner.

The boat was  _ way _ out now. The coast just a smear. Ocean in all directions. The only break in the horizon was the smudgy, dark shape of a distant oil tanker. 

They all sat in a circle on the wooden deck, legs crossed. Pop music on the stereo. Their bowls of ramen on the deck in front of them. Kai pulled the lid of his bowl back and inhaled the scent of his ramen. He salivated at the mouth, suddenly starving.

Soobin spoke up. “Before we begin, let us pray.”

Everyone glanced around, unsure of what to make of this. They had eaten together quite often but none of the boys considered themselves particularly religious so praying before they ate was never a thing for them.

“Let us all bow our heads,” said Soobin, parodying the musical and slow voice of a pastor. Surprisingly, the boys obeyed. “We are all gathered here today for food and fellowship. For sustenance and brotherhood. May we eat of this meal and gain nourishment for our bodies and souls!” He was getting carried away now, hands raised to the cloudless sky.

The others, used to his antics, didn’t flinch at the sudden volume of his voice.

Beomgyu offered a mild, “Hallelujah,” fanning himself with his hand.

Soobin continued, “May we find what it is we seek beneath these waves, O Lord. May our intentions be pure and our journey be fruitful! May we catch even a glimpse of this glorious mermaid and may our eyes be blessed with her visage!”

Kai lost his patience. He snapped his wooden chopsticks apart and used them to stir his steaming ramen. Yeonjun, hands clasped in front of his chest in earnest prayer, cracked open an eye and gave Kai a judgmental glare like  _ Be respectful _ . 

Kai didn’t see.

“And may we remember this day for years to come,” Soobin continued. His loud and joking tone had rapidly turned serious. He was no longer shouting like an actor in a bad play but speaking from what seemed to be the general vicinity of his heart. “May we forever be tied to each other and to this boat and to this summer. May we never forget how much fun we had this vacation and may we always be safe and happy no matter how far from this beach our lives and ambitions take us. In Jesus’s name we pray, amen.”

“Amen,” Taehyun and Beomgyu chorused in unison.

Kai wasn’t sure if it was all still a joke or not so he just shoved ramen in his mouth and chewed.

“Let’s dig in!” shouted Soobin.

The five boys, the three tourists and the two locals, friends on the verge of leaving summer and each other behind, all dug in. The strange prayer had cast an odd mood over them so they ate in an uneasy silence. 

None of them were entirely sure how much truth to Soobin’s words there would be.

None of them were sure how much they would stay connected after this.

🚤🚤🚤

“Ahoy, mateys!” Beomgyu cried out in his best pirate impression. “Our booty lies out on the starboard side. I see her! The mermaid! Right there, right there, right there. Ripe for the claiming.”

They had been at sea for an hour now, spending the long, slow, quiet minutes casually snacking or napping or chatting about nothing in particular. The strong winds, bright sun, choppy waves and their full stomachs had lulled them into a dreamy stupor but Beomgyu’s outburst had snapped them all out of it. Well, except Kai still stretched out across his chair sleeping.

“Which side is starboard again?” Taehyun asked from his lounge chair, rolling to his feet and stretching. He hadn’t moved since they’d eaten.

“I’m not sure but it’s over there!” Beomgyu was pointing excitedly now, his pirate voice forgotten. “Look, look, look! We have to get over there.”

By then, Taehyun had reached the railing and was peering out in the direction Beomgyu indicated. He jumped into the air. “I see something! What is that? Is it the mermaid for real?” 

Yeonjun, who had been strumming a gentle tune on his ukelele, stood up and joined the other two at the railing. He, too, began pointing, grinning wildly. 

“Go, go, go. This is not a drill!” Soobin grabbed Kai by his collar and hoisted the half-dozing boy to his feet. “To the wheelhouse.”

“Huh?” Groggily, Kai stumbled as the boat swayed to and fro on the waves, only staying upright because of Soobin’s firm hand on his back. “What happened?”

“We found the mermaid,” Soobin stated, guiding Kai up the ladder as the other boy yawned. 

“There’s no mermaid.” Kai stated firmly, nearly missing a rung on the ladder due to his drowsiness.

“I swear there is! The boys are looking at it now.” Soobin hurried Kai along with a rather violent strike on his ass that got him a startled squeal out of Kai. 

From up in the bridge, Kai could see the other three pointing and waving their arms. He pushed the throttle forward, heard the engines rev up and spun the big, wooden wheel so that the boat would turn in the direction the boys were screeching about. He could feel the boat turning and lurching as the engine and the tide fought over which one had control of the boat.

“There’s no mermaid,” Kai repeated. 

“Just ease up, will ya? Have a little faith.” Soobin said.

“I have faith in the fact that none of you know what you’re doing.” As far as he knew, mermaids didn’t stick too long in waters this warm.

“Come on. It’s fun! We’ve had weirder adventures.” 

Haunted caves. Cursed, abandoned houses. Treasure buried under beached shipwrecks. A circle of moss-covered stones that may be a portal to a different world. Soobin had led them all up and down the beach throughout the summer. Sometimes they found something extremely similar to what they were looking for. Most of the time they didn’t.

“What’s got you so confident that we’ll find anything out here?”

“Intuition.” Soobin tapped a finger to his temple. He had found Kai’s dad’s brass spyglass and extended it before putting it to his eye. “I see a big ole shadow under the waves.”

It dawned on Kai that there might  _ actually _ be something out there. All of them wouldn’t be this hype if there wasn’t. If it was just Taehyun and Beomgyu, he could be rightfully suspicious, but Yeonjun as well?

Following pointed fingers while steering a boat wasn’t exactly easy. The waves knocked them to and fro constantly and several times the three boys down below seemed to be pointing in opposing directions. 

“I have visuals on the target!” Soobin screamed.

“Which way?” Kai asked. 

“11, 22, 7, 48 east by 89, 109, 2, 14 north,” Soobin recited. 

Kai rolled his eyes. “Those are just random numbers. That’s not how you give coordinates.” 

“I’m just reporting what I see. Over.” Soobin made a noise like a walkie-talkie cutting out. 

Kai sighed. “I don’t see anything.”

“You have to say over when you finish speaking. Over.”

“We’re standing right next-”

“It’s dead ahead. I see it!” 

“Let me see that.”

Soobin handed over the spyglass. Technically, Kai was the only one out of the five with any actual naval navigational abilities. He peered through the spyglass, trying to orient himself with the expansive blue environment and this so called mermaid his friends were pointing at. Kai only had to look at the dark shape on the water for a few moments to realize what it was.

He cut the engines. 

“Dude! Full steam ahead!” Soobin complained, shaking Kai by the shoulders.

“Follow me.” Kai said, pushing open the metal door of the wheelhouse and stepping back outside. He led the way down the ladder and around towards the front deck where the others had also noticed that the boat was slowing down. 

“Why are we stopping?” Beomgyu asked, hands over his eyes to shield them from the sun, his sunglasses completely forgotten sitting on top of his head. 

“The mermaid is so close,” Taehyun whined, stomping his foot childishly. “We can catch up!”

Yeonjun made a flapping motion with his arms like  _ Are we out of fuel? _

Kai pointed at the shadow. It was still quite some ways ahead of them and seemed to undulate and spin with the rise and fall of the waves. Under the haze of the sun, it  _ did _ look like something very large was swimming just below the surface. “That’s a cloud, you fools.” 

“What!?” All of them except Yeonjun shouted.

“Umm, clouds are in the sky,” Taehyun cut in.

“And you wanna know what else is in the sky? The sun,” Kai helpfully informed them. He pointed.

The rest of them squinted upwards towards the sky where a lone low-hanging cloud was partially blocking the sun and, thus, casting a skewed shadow over the ocean’s choppy surface.

“I’m going back to my nap,” Kai announced. It was the nicest thought running through his head at the moment. He glared at the back of Soobin’s head, annoyed that he’d let himself be talked into this nonsense and almost gotten excited about it. Soobin, however, was too busy laughing off their foolish mistake and draping his arms over Beomgyu’s shoulders to notice.

The wind changed direction. The boat hit a wave and a thin spray of salt water doused their skin as the boat rocked.

Yeonjun rubbed his fingers beneath his eyes like  _ I think it’s going to rain _ but no one saw.

🚤🚤🚤

“Thanks for this,” Beomgyu said.

Another long hour had passed, putting them square at six in the afternoon. The sun had shifted, turning the sky dusky orange and leaving the boat’s long shadow dragging after them in the waves.

“Thanks for what?” Kai asked, sipping at his bottle of water as he leaned against the side of the cabin.

“For taking us out here.” Beomgyu grinned. “You’ve made my summer.” 

“Hmm?”

Beomgyu’s face went red from mild embarrassment. “Don’t make me say it again. It’s so cheesy and soft.”

Kai tilted his head, not understanding. “What are you talking about?” 

“I’m thanking you for being such a cool dude and taking us out on the boat.”

“You’re making it sound like this is the first time you’ve been on it.”

“I mean out on the  _ ocean _ , man! It feels like we’re the only people in the whole wide world out here.” He pointed over the railing at the blue nothingness around them. “I’ve never been out on the ocean before. I actually thought I would be way more afraid than this but… I'm just excited.”

It was weird hearing Beomgyu talk so passionately about something that wasn’t a girl he was trying to flirt with. 

“Wait, is this really your first time out here?”

“Yeah,” Beomgyu said, grinning wide. “This was my first summer at the beach. Ever. And you made it so much fun.”

Kai glanced around as if checking for a camera aimed in his direction. Taehyun and Yeonjun had gone below deck as the constant rocking of the boat had gotten them both feeling queasy. Soobin was at the stern of the boat, a legitimate fishing rod in his hands, waiting for a bite. 

No camera.

This wasn’t a prank.

Beomgyu must have picked up on Kai’s apprehension. “I’m serious, man. I rarely get to leave the city with all of the private tutors and cram schools and internships. This summer, I’ve just been able to chill and have fun and eat junk food with you guys. I needed this. I mean it. I probably would have died from stress without you and the others.” 

Kai didn’t know what to say. 

The past few weeks, he’d only been thinking about the group’s inevitable end as everyone else left town. First Beomgyu, then Taehyun, then Yeonjun and, most terribly of all, Soobin. They were growing up and the real world was calling. 9 to 5s and morning classes, a brand new horde of fans, and the high expectations of aging parents. Oh my.

Kai was used to the ocean by now. Used to the beach. Used to the boardwalk. He never really thought that what they were doing out here today could possibly be a happy escape for someone and he definitely hadn’t considered that  _ he _ was part of the reason these boys were happy today. 

“No problem,” Kai finally said, allowing himself to smile and feel happy too. “I’m glad we all got to know each other. I’m glad we became friends.”

🚤🚤🚤

Alone in the wheelhouse, Kai stared through his dad’s spyglass out the bridge windows. He’d spotted about two large commercial airplanes, a smaller private jet, a few large birds, another oil tanker, twenty-three dolphins and at least one whale. 

None of those things were mermaids. 

He was keeping an eye on the boat’s dashboard. On the gauges and screens and radars and instrument panels. He hated to admit it but they would  _ have _ to turn back soon. Fuel was not an infinite resource and they had drifted farther out to sea than Kai felt comfortable admitting. It was also Monday and his favorite TV show came on at nine. 

Boy, would it be a hassle trying to convince the boys to call the hunt a failure and head home.

Kai sighed and lowered the spyglass from his eye. He took a step backwards only to run up against something solid. Something that hadn’t been there moments before.

Startled, he whirled around only to find Soobin grinning from ear to ear behind him.

“How long have you been in here?” Kai asked. He had thought his friend was still fishing. 

“A while,” Soobin admitted. “Watching you.” 

“Stop fooling around.”

“I actually was watching you,” insisted Soobin. He leaned down to whisper conspiratorially. “You’re having a blast, aren’t you?”

“Huh?” Kai looked away, his cheeks reddening.

“You’re having fun! Admit it.” 

“Not really.”

“Wrong! You should have seen the look on your face just now. So diligent and thoughtful. Focused. You’re really getting into this, Kai. Giving it your all.”

Kai sighed and turned back around, peering through the spyglass once again. “I just really want you guys to find your mermaid.” 

“ _ Our _ mermaid. You want to find it, too. You’re grinning.”

“Because you’re being absolutely ridiculous.”

“I’m being truthful. If you want, I can help you track down the mermaid.”

His offer hung in the air for a long moment. If Kai accepted it, he’d be admitting that he actually believed there was a mermaid for them to find out here. If he refused, he was afraid he’d spoil the mood of the trip. Soobin seemed to be genuinely into this and Kai didn’t want to be the one who spoiled the group’s last big hurrah.

Not knowing what to say, he said nothing and continued to scan the horizon through the spyglass.

Then Kai felt something be placed on top of his head. “What is that?” He asked without bothering to move.

“I found it in one of the cabins. Don’t worry. It’s a hat.” 

Kai lowered the spyglass and glanced over his shoulder at the tiny mirror that hung on the wall beneath his father’s calendars and maps and old photographs. The hat was small and white with navy blue piping that seemed to match their uniforms exactly. “Must belong to one of my dad’s crew members,” Kai commented. 

“Now you really look like a captain.”

“Me?” Kai turned to look up at the older boy. “But you’re the leader.”

Soobin made a funny face and waved away the title like it was little more than a buzzing fly. “You’re the captain.” He brought his hands up to Kai’s new hat and readjusted it so that it sat more centered on his dark hair. “You’re the one who brought us all together. The puzzle piece that made us all fit.”

This was news to Kai. 

“I know what you’re going to say. That it’s not you. But it is. I saw you at the marina all those months ago and thought you looked so cool working on this boat with your dad and the crew. Then Yeonjun said you fixed his bike so he started following you around and wanting to hang out.”

“I didn’t fix it,” Kai said. “It was just a slipped chain. Anyone could-”

“Shhh,” Soobin put his entire hand across Kai’s mouth. “Then Beomgyu wanted to hang out with us because he thought we were stylish and cool and then Taehyun saw us all together and invited us to his dad’s barbecue.”

Kai tried to speak but Soobin tightened his grip on the younger boy’s face.

“You’re great, Kai,” Soobin said, not joking at all. “If it hadn’t been for you, my last summer here would have been a drag. I’d spend my days doing nothing more exciting than helping old ladies put sunscreen on their backs. I know you hate on yourself a lot but look at you. Piloting this big boat without any help from your dad.” 

At last, he dropped his hand from Kai’s mouth, who was so stunned by the gratitude he was being shown today that he could not figure out how to react.

“I’m going to miss you when I leave, Kai. I’m sure that we all will.” 

Kai swallowed hard, face turning red. He spun away from Soobin and held up the spyglass again. It could have been the joy of the moment playing tricks on his eyes or perhaps his own imagination running wild but… but didn’t he just see movement off the port side? Far too big to be a dolphin? 

“Hold on,” he said. 

He readjusted the spyglass and tried to find the movement again. Had he imagined it? No. Wait. Right there. Rising slowly up out of the water, towering above the distant waves.

No way.

Was it really?

In a strange way, it was exactly like Taehyun had said back on the boardwalk: there was sort of a nose and  _ maybe _ some eyebrows. And wasn’t that the mouth?

“I don’t believe it. Look. Look!” Kai nearly smacked Soobin upside the head with the spyglass in his haste to push the instrument into his friend’s hands. 

“Where? Where?” Soobin asked, putting his eye to the instrument. 

Kai grabbed hold of Soobin’s wrist and guided him towards the direction he’d seen the shape. He couldn’t be imagining it. He could see it with his own two eyes.

“Full steam ahead!” Soobin screamed at the top of his lungs.

This time, Kai was happy to oblige him. 

🚤🚤🚤

It took three minutes to go below deck and round up the others. Taehyun was in the galley devouring a bag of onion-flavored chips, Beomgyu was in the cabin napping, while Yeonjun took a bit longer to locate and was actually in the bathroom staring at himself in the mirror with the glazed-over facial expression of someone who hadn’t moved in a while. 

By the time all five of them were on deck, the shape Soobin and Kai spotted earlier had vanished. 

Taehyun shrugged it off. “False alarm?” After their last mermaid sighting had ended up being a cloud, he’d gotten over the whole thing and was secretly ready to head back to shore.

“I swear, it was right over here,” Kai searched the horizon frantically with his eyes, rushing from the port side railing to the starboard side railing like he was on fire. “We both saw it!”

Beomgyu nodded. “Honestly, I believe it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kai move that fast so I  _ know _ he saw something.”

“Then where did it go?” Taehyun asked between mouthfuls of chips. 

Yeonjun pointed to the wooden deck beneath his feet like  _ Maybe back underwater? _

“You’re a genius,” Soobin laughed, smacking Yeonjun on the shoulder.

They all rushed up to the starboard side railing and peered over the side and down into the dark blue depths. “Other side, other side,” Beomgyu suggested.

All five of them rushed to the other side and leaned over the railing.

There she was. A massive dark shape almost directly beneath the boat. It clearly wasn’t the shadow of a cloud this time.

“As I live and breathe,” Kai had to step back and blink to keep from absolutely losing it.

“She’s stunning,” Soobin cried out.

“Take a picture, take a picture,” Taehyun screamed. His earlier disbelief had evaporated. 

“I left my phone in the wheelhouse.”

“Oh my god!” 

Kai approached the railing again, carefully leaning over as if afraid he’d be snatched right off the deck. He hadn’t been entirely sure the first time but now he was. He could see a pale, thin arm. He could count the fingers on the mermaid’s hand. 

She was real and she was massive. As big as the boat. Perhaps larger.

“Let’s catch it!” Soobin jostled Kai aside. In the seconds Kai hadn’t been looking, Soobin had gone to retrieve his fishing rod. 

“ _ That’s _ what you’re going to try to catch it with?” Kai couldn’t believe it.

Soobin exclaimed, “Hell yeah!” 

The other boys whooped and hollered in agreement except Yeonjun who just propped his chin on his fist like  _ We are guaranteed to succeed _ .

“Are you for real?” Kai asked as he watched Soobin bait the hook. “That’s how you’re going to catch a mermaid? With a fishing rod and a tiny worm?”

“Umm, this rod is professional grade!” Soobin was indignant.

“It’s a big fish, isn’t it?” asked Taehyun sarcastically. “What’s more appetizing than a worm?”

Beomgyu said, “I saw this in a movie once,” as if that explained everything.

“Trust me,” Soobin said as he propped a foot up on the railing for balance and reared back to cast the line.

Kai stepped back and muttered, almost to himself, “Am I living in some alternative dimension? Does logic just work differently for you guys?” Then a shocking thought came to him that made him gasp. “Are you guys just a hallucination? Have I been talking to myself  _ all _ summer? Am I  _ that _ lonely?”

The others didn’t seem to hear him which just made Kai legitimately anxious. He pressed his fingers against his temples to fight off a sudden headache. 

With a holler, Soobin flung the rod forward and they all watched in rapt admiration as the hook flew gracefully through the air before falling into the water.

Kai had mentally checked out, searching his memories for any clues hinting at the boys being just figments of his imagination. No, they couldn’t be… Just today, the girl at the frozen yogurt counter had given him five spoons.

Suddenly, Soobin yelled four words that changed everything: “I’ve got a bite!”

Almost immediately afterwards, there was a large splash in front of the boat and then the rod twisted into a tight upside down U-shape, miraculously without snapping in half. 

Then the five of them were thrown to the deck as the boat rocked violently to the side.

“It’s pulling us!” Soobin shouting, smile wide and eyes twinkling. “I’ve got it. I’ve got it!”

A wave crashed over the bow of the boat, showering water down on them. Kai got the majority of what hit him in his eyes and down his throat. He nearly gagged coughing up the bitter salt water. 

“Give me a hand here, guys,” Soobin cried out. Somehow he was still standing and was holding his own in a tug of war match against the mermaid.

The other boys, all of them soaked through, stood up and rushed to Soobin’s side, hands gripping the fishing rod to add their strength to his. 

“Pull!” Taehyun ordered.

They all pulled. The mermaid pulled back. 

The boat surged sideways, tilting dangerously close to the water. The boat rode up one side of a wave and slid down the other side. The boys all struggled to stay upright. 

Soobin readjusted his grip on the fishing rod. “Pull!”

The five of them pulled again, straining and straining. Kai could feel the weight of the mermaid on the other end of the line. Impossibly heavy. Impossibly strong. Soobin reeled in the line as quickly as he could manage. 

The boat hit another, larger wave. Gravity seemed to hiccup and temporarily let go of them. Then all of their weight was thrown the other way as the boat moved unnaturally over the water. The bow plunged towards the ocean and sent a towering spray above them on either side. The water belted them in the face and across their arms with surprising velocity. 

Kai realized they were being pulled at an incredible speed. The mermaid was flinging them over wave after wave and, somehow, the tiny fishing line hadn’t snapped yet. 

Another one of Soobin’s ridiculous ideas was actually working.

Then it stopped. One last surprisingly gentle tug and then there was no longer resistance on the other end of the line. The boys stumbled backwards, bowling into each other and then falling onto the deck on their backsides. 

“Damn. It got away,” Soobin grumbled. He finished reeling in the line and they all stared at the empty hook. 

“It took the bait,” Taehyun said, pointing. 

“We almost had it,” Beomgyu added. “We actually almost had it.” 

Yeonjun pushed his wet hair out of his eyes like  _ I thought our success was guaranteed but this new development is equally intriguing _ . 

Kai threw up his hands. He was actually kind of upset that Soobin’s half-ass plan had worked. “I know nothing. I understand nothing.”

More excited than put-down by the failure, the others laughed and started a vigorous round of high-fives and chest bumps. 

Of course it would be Kai who rained on their parade. “Alright, that’s enough.” 

Slowly, their excitement died down. The four of them turned to him with all kinds of frowns on their faces. 

“We’re turning around,” Kai said. “We’re going back to shore.” 

Like a group of whiny children, they all whimpered “Aww” in unison except Yeonjun who rubbed the tip of his nose which meant the same thing.

“No fair,” Beomgyu said. 

“We actually caught the blasted thing,” griped Taehyun. “How about one more go?”

Soobin stepped forward and gave Kai’s shoulders a mighty shake. “Let’s track it again. Surely something that big shows up on the sonar! Let’s follow it. Maybe there are others. We can photograph them, sell the pics and be rich. Screw college! I don’t want to go anyway.”

Kai pushed Soobin’s hands away. He would not give in. He couldn’t! “I’m turning us around. There’s a storm brewing, it’s getting late and the mermaid pulled us even farther out to sea and I’m not even sure we’ll have enough fuel to get back!” 

With his shout, the others stopped their whining and complaining and fell into silence. It was like the seriousness of the situation had only just been made plain to them.

Way off the port side, gathering storm clouds were visible on the horizon. They were a dark gray slash between the sky and the ocean. It had snuck up on them while they were wrestling with the mermaid.

Yeonjun put both hands on his head and tugged on his hair like  _ I knew it would rain! _

As if to reiterate, Kai said, “We’re going back.” Now he didn’t care if he was ruining summer or if he was being a wet rag. Their safety was his number one concern and he didn’t want anything bad happening to his friends. 

🚤🚤🚤

They couldn’t outrun the storm. That much should have been obvious.

More and more of the sky above them was darkening with gray clouds. Howling winds whipped past the windows and thunder rumbled low and powerful in the distance. Every now and then, a flash of lighting would split the sky. The setting sun, peeking through a break in the clouds, shone on them in a dusky pink spotlight. The ocean, agitated by the storm, churned up rocky waves that shoved the boat up and down and up and down and made Taehyun hurl the contents of his stomach off the stern side.

Kai was terrified. 

He had only rode out on the boat in a storm like this once before but his dad had been at the helm and the crew, with their nerves of steel, had carried on with their work regardless. 

But this was different. Kai didn’t have an experienced crew. He definitely wasn’t old enough to be driving this thing by himself. He wasn’t entirely sure if the high numbers on some of the gauges were a good thing or a bad thing. To make matters more anxiety-inducing, the boat was still out of range to reach someone on the ship-to-shore radio and the low fuel light had been on for the last ten minutes.

To put it simply, Kai was stressed. 

Every muscle in his body was tense as he did his best to steer the boat over the rough waves and keep them pointed in the general direction of the shore. 

It didn’t help that Soobin, forever fearless and never serious, casually lounged in the captain’s chair next to him reading an article in a magazine about recent mermaid sightings, oohing and ahhing over the photos. 

The wheelhouse door swung open and a completely soaked Beomgyu stood there, his hair whipping in the wind, the sky dark behind him. “Guys, something terrible happened,” he cried out, looking terrified.

Kai immediately thought the worst. A fire? A leak?

Soobin was the one who spoke up. “What is it?”

Beomgyu frowned deeply, like he was trying to hold back tears. “We’re out of snacks!”

Kai bit his bottom lip to keep from screaming in frustration. His tight grip on the steering wheel was probably the only thing keeping him from hurling Beomgyu off the side of the boat.

“Out of snacks!” Soobin repeated, looking scandalized. “I swear, I only had one bowl of ramen, two bags of chips, one bag of peppermint candy, half a bag of gummy bears and one packet of that weird applesauce stuff.” 

Beomgyu nodded his head fervently. “I ate all of the chocolate, I must admit. Even the mint choco stuff. But Taehyun’s been snacking all day. I bet he ate all the rest. Why didn’t he buy enough? It was the one thing he was in charge of.” 

“Do you think Yeonjun ate all of it? He’d never admit it,” Soobin shook his head and tsked like a disapproving parent.

Kai reached into the pocket of his shorts. “I still have this.” He held up an individually wrapped snack cake, barely the size of his palm and coated in white frosting and sprinkles and a diabetes-inducing amount of sugar. 

Soobin sprang to his feet. “You’ve been holding out on us.”

“The fiend,” Beomgyu agreed, his eyes narrowing. “How could you? How  _ dare _ you.”

Soobin attempted to snatch the treat out of Kai’s hand but Kai yanked his hand backwards and out of the boy’s range. “We five-way split it,” he said firmly. “And that’s final.”

🚤🚤🚤

Below deck in the galley, they all sat around the bolted-down table, trying to ignore the boat’s rocking and the bright white lightning flashes flickering through the portholes like strobe lights.

It had been Yeonjun’s precise knife skills that had split the vanilla snack cake into five equal bite-size chunks and now he gingerly sat them on napkin squares in front of the boys like he was handing out pieces of something sacred.

“I should have bought the family-size chip bags,” Taehyun said, frowning deeply. “They had a buy-one-get-one special on the jalapeno cashews and I didn’t capitalize on it!”

Soobin raised his voice, speaking like a pastor just as he had done earlier that day with the ramen. “Let us bow our heads in prayer. O Lord, we come to you-”

“We’re not going to make it back,” Kai interrupted, unceremoniously popping his snack cake slice into his mouth. It tasted artificial and hollow on his tongue. It wasn’t even good in a bad way. 

“What? What did you say?” Taehyun asked. He’d been nibbling on the side of his snack cake, taking the most microscopic of bites in order to make it last. 

“We don’t have enough gas to get back to shore,” Kai clarified. He’d been trying to figure out how to tell them for ages now but sometimes just being direct was the best method. 

Yeonjun chewed on his miniature cake slice and furrowed his brow like  _ I said this would happen but no one listens to me _ .

Beomgyu gasped sharply. “Are we going to die out here? We’ll drift out here for twenty days and twenty nights. Will we have to resort to cannibalism? I’m nothing but lean meat so we should probably start with Soobin.” 

Kai continued as if he hadn’t heard. “I can keep trying the radio and see if I can get in touch with the coast guard. We’ll have to get a tow and I’m sure my dad will kill me once he gets the bill.” 

“Or,” Soobin shouted as he chewed, commanding the room’s attention, “we lure the mermaid to us, catch her and get her to pull us to shore.”

For some strange reason, the majority of the gathered boys considered  _ that _ the more effective solution. “Let’s do it!” Taehyun said.

“But aren’t we out of bait?” Beomgyu pointed out. “Soobin used it all up earlier playing around trying to catch sea bass or whatever. We don’t even have snacks left.” 

Kai rolled his eyes. “We can just call a tow,” he repeated, trying to get them to listen to reason.

No dice.

“We’ll have to use live bait,” Soobin said with conviction. “One of us will have to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the rest of us.” 

Yeonjun nodded sagely like  _ What an honorable death _ . 

“We can call the coast guard,” Kai said again. How did these boys keep their heads attached to their shoulders? “We can call my dad!”

His plea fell on deaf ears. 

“I’d love to be bait but I have a party to get to tonight,” Taehyun said. He reached across the table to snatch Beomgyu’s portion of snack cake since the other boy had made the grave mistake of not immediately eating it.

Yeonjun put his finger to his nose like  _ Not it _ .

In that moment, a silent decision had been made. It took Kai a long moment to realize that Soobin, Beomgyu, Taehyun and even Yeonjun were all staring at him expectantly, their eyes dangerously serious. 

Eyes wide with shock, Kai put both hands on his chest and screeched, “Me?”

“Thanks for volunteering.” Soobin said. Then his voice dropped an octave. He grinned rather devilishly and looked over at the others. “Get him.” 

🚤🚤🚤

Kai was actually more okay with this decision than he thought he’d be. 

Part of it was him just being completely over how crappy the day had turned out but, really, his acceptance was mainly due to the fact that he was shocked that Soobin’s fishing rod could even support his weight. 

Ahh, professional grade.

It was Beomgyu that had threaded the fishing hook through the back of Kai’s shirt collar and it was Soobin that managed to gently lower him over the side of the boat and into the choppy waves.

“You’re such a brave soul,” Beomgyu said. 

Taehyun’s face was solemn and hard. “You will be missed.” 

Yeonjun tugged his ears like  _ What a great summer vacation _ .

“Let’s send him off properly, boys,” Soobin shouted over the wind. 

In nearly perfect unison, they held their right hands up to their foreheads in salutes. Soobin taking his hand off of the handle of the fishing reel made Kai fall faster into the waves.

This, too, was easy for him to accept. Kai held up his arm and gave them a thumbs up. He couldn’t even be surprised at this development. “Yeah, whatever.” Then his head went beneath the dark waves in a tumble of bubbles, followed soon after by his upraised thumb.

“A moment of silence,” said Taehyun.

Yeonjun started a vocal rendition of Taps and the funerary song was so fitting in the moment that none of the others noticed that Yeonjun was actually  _ making sounds with his mouth _ .

The mermaid took the bait almost immediately afterwards, as if she had been lurking in the stormy ocean nearby. The whole boat rocked forward as the mermaid grabbed the bait.

“I got her. I got her!” Soobin shouted as the storm raged above them. “Pull!”

The four remaining boys all grabbed hold of the fishing rod and pulled. Soobin reeled in the line like a madman, spitting out a mouthful of salt water as an angry ocean wave splashed over them.

“Just a little more. I have her!” Soobin reeled in with all of his might. “Pull! Pull!”

The boys pulled and, with one great heave, hoisted the mermaid out of the water. She towered above the bow of the boat, dark hair whipping around her shoulders in the raging wind. 

“We really did it!” Beomgyu ran up to the ship railing and leaned dangerously far over it to get a better look.

“Take a picture, take a picture,” Taehyun impatiently punched Soobin in the shoulder as the other boy rescued his phone from his soaking wet shorts and tried to get the thing to turn on. “Hurry!”

Yeonjun folded his arms across his chest like  _ Something’s fishy _ .

Beomgyu noticed it as well. “Guys,” he called out to get their attention as the mermaid used a hand to pull their hair out of their face. “That’s no mermaid.”

Taehyun and Soobin stopped squabbling and stared up at the sea creature who looked down at them just as curiously.

It definitely wasn’t a mermaid. 

It was a merman. 

And sitting cross-legged on the merman’s palm was Kai, chin propped up on his fist looking bored out of his mind. 

“Worst summer vacation ever,” he moaned.


End file.
